There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.

Suffering without understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you have at least the grain of an idea what it's all for.

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.

Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it's own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one's thoughts.

Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it's own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one's thoughts.

The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life.